Mirai E
by CatMuto
Summary: Chibimoon and her Quartet must travel to the future to save their present - on the way they meet new people and find out more than they had thought of. Could it be that they're changing their coming history with dear consequences?
1. Towards The Future

**Cat-Alin does not gain any profit by writing or publishing this story.  
All characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi and TOEI Animation.**

I have finally managed to draw Chibiusa in a fuku I wanted her to wear for  
a different story - and it didn't fit the atmosphere anymore. Then this story  
appeared in my head and things flowed from there.  
Look for sketches of this story at my deviantArt account as Cat-Alin!

There's no specific timeline when this story takes place,  
but it's definitely after StarS.

* * *

The young girl stood on the balcony of her room, the view below her depicted the

royal rosecourt and a glimpse of the bazaar over the palace's inner wall.

She dimly heard merchants advertising their goods in loud voices,

customers chatting animately with each other or the merchants.

The young girl leaned against the railing, hoping to hear more but failed to do so.

Her rose colored hair was put up into two pigtails, arched in big puffs, and her

dress flowed in a big wave from her body, the slit in the middle revealing another skirt underneath.

"-renity."

She sighed and wished to go to the bazaar.

"Serenity!"

A hand patted her on the back slightly and she turned, seeing a girl a bit older than herself

looking at her. Her paleblue eyes matched her hair, set in a fashion that seemed impossible to imitate.

"You're not reacting. Pallas has been calling you for a while now!" the girl said, sounding hurt.

"Sorry. Guess I was spacing out." the other one apologized. Yes, she was still trying to adjust to being

called Serenity now. She was so used to the nickname she had gotten back then. Even now, she was mostly

still called Small Lady. Only her parents and guardians had begun to call her that.

But Chibiusa still felt more familiar to that than Serenity ..

"You're spacing out again. Don't leave Pallas alone."

Serenity giggled. "Sorry, sorry. Just .. nothing."

Pallas sighed deeply and sat in a fetal position on the railing, looking depressed.

"Pallas thought Serenity trusted her, but Serenity doesn't talk about her problems. Serenity doesn't

like Pallas anymore .." she muttered sadly.

"Ah, no, that's not it, Pallas!" Serenity waved it off quickly and patted Pallas' back. "I like you

and I trust you - you and your sisters are my dearest friends."

The girl turned around. "Really?"

"Yes. I'd tell you any worry I might have .."

"Pallas is glad to hear that! So, what's wrong?" she asked, her eyes growing wide with curiosity.

Serenity hesitated for a moment. "Do you remember Helios?"

"Of course!"

"Well, it's about him .." she started and stopped.

They had met, fallen in love and needed to go separate ways again, but had promised each other

that they would see each other again. Definitely. But so far, nothing had happened.

"Serenity, you're worried about him?"

Serenity shook her head and turned her gaze towards the bazaar again. "No, just .. I had sort of

thought that, when I returned here, he'd be waiting for me. Meeting me at the Time-Space Door."

She decided to not say anymore, as she knew that she had repeated these words and similar ones

so many times that everyone was probably sick of hearing about it.

And it wasn't like talking about him would change anything ..

"Oi, Pallas! What'cha doing?"

The annoyed voice made the two girls jump and turn towards the door where an older girl was standing,

her arms crossed in a strong gesture. Her green hair was extraordinarely fashioned and her green

pants slid down her hips carelessly.

"Onee-sama .."

"You're taking forever, Pallas! You probably forgot what you left for the moment you came here!"

Pallas gasped in an embarrassed manner, it was probably right.

She laughed sheepishly and looked at her older. "I'm sorry, Onee-sama .."

"Geez, any slower and you wouldn't move at all." the girl sighed exhausted. "Serenity, would you

please come with me? Pluto-sama is calling for you."

Serenity blinked confused and approached the older girl who started walking ahead,

so she and Pallas followed her. Their footsteps echoed in the big empty crystal hallway,

their reflections moving in perfect synchronisation.

"Juno, what does Puu want from me?"

The older girl shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Not sure. She just told us to get you and meet

her at the Time-Space Corridor."

Serenity nodded slightly, still confused but thought that it was something necessary.

"Small Lady?"

All three stopped and looked at the young and pretty woman approaching them.

"Mylady .." the two sisters said and bowed, leaving quietly after signalling Serenity to catch up.

The woman's white dress trailed delicately on the floor, her silverblonde hair was almost the same length

and her blue eyes looked worried. She was cradling a newborn in her arms.

"What are you in a rush for?" she asked, having noticed the sisters talking with her earnestly.

"Puu .. Pluto has requested to speak with me, Mother." Serenity said with a slight curtsey. "I'm not sure about what."

Her mother nodded slightly. She trusted Pluto and knew her well, knowing that it must be important.

"Very well. Run along, then. Keeping her waiting is not good." she told her daughter and focused her attention

then to her second daughter, who was whining slightly.

With another slight curtsey, Serenity followed the way the sisters had gone.

* * *

"Did the Queen want anything?"

In the Time-Space Corridor, when Serenity had caught up, two other girls had already arrived.

One had yellow flowers in her pink hair, the other had hair as red as flames - both were about the

same age as Juno, older than Serenity and had similar styled hair.

Serenity shook her head, trying to see through the thick fog of the corridor, looking for Pluto.

"She wanted to know where I'm going, but let it be when I said I was meeting Puu."

"I am glad to hear that, Small Lady."

The deep voice belonged to a young woman with dark skin and long dark hair,

her solemn red eyes focused on each of the five girls, then on Serenity again.

"Puu!" she gasped slightly, happy to see her friend again after some time. "I'm happy to see you!"

"I'm pleased as well, Small Lady." Pluto said and grew serious again. "I have asked you to come here

for something important."

Serenity nodded and listened, her guardians were quietly paying attention as well.

"I need you and your soldiers to travel." Pluto said and fumbled with the keychain around her waist,

tiny silver and gold keys clinking together animatedly. "To the 31st Century."

The girls gasped - it was unlikely to be told to travel _forwards_ in time. Of course, it was forbidden

to travel to any time at all, but if an urgent matter came up, they were generally sent back in time.

Either to change something that had happened or to stop something entirely.

Serenity stepped forwards and took the small silver key from Pluto who was holding it towards her.

"What for? What are we supposed to do?"

"Travel to the future - to save our present."

A gasp was heard from the girls, their thoughts focusing on one: What could happen that would

destroy their era of peace? The Black Moon Clan had been defeated some time ago,

things had been almost boringly calm and eventless since then.

If, in a rare case, monsters appeared the soldiers were there right away - the monster was defeated,

it barely worried the citizens anymore.

"Can you tell us what is happening?" Serenity asked calmly.

".. I'm not sure." Pluto admitted. "Something has drastically reduced the population .. perhaps a disease

broke out and claimed them too quickly for a cure .. anyhow, I want you to find out what caused it

and try to stop it."

The girls nodded and followed Pluto to one of the dozens of doors and Serenity used the small key

to open it. The fourth dimension beyond it swirled fiercely. All five girls gripped Serenity's hand

which held the key tightly and took a deep breath, jumping into it.

The swirls around them hissed noisely and the sensation of falling down a deep hole strengthened

before everything went black.

* * *

A short prologue, newer chapters will be longer than this.  
Next chapter will focus on the future and a new encounter  
brings them closer to their goal?


	2. Crystal Tokyo

**Cat-Alin does not gain any profit by writing or publishing this story.  
All characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi and TOEI Animation.**

* * *

Transformed in their soldier fukus, they looked around where they had landed.

The ground beneath them was a dirt road, trotted into a smooth surface.

But the rest of their surroundings proved that, otherwise, this road wasn't used very often.

To both sides grew dense forests, thick branches hanging low and high, obscuring part of the sky.

The road sloped downwards in front of them and in the distance they could see the Crystal Palace,

the transparent stones almost invisible - blending perfectly into the dark night.

"I wonder why we were sent out here .." Vesta muttered quietly to herself, but seemed to ask the

question to the other girls. "After all, if something happened that would need our assistance,

it'd be easier to send us close or right into the city. Ask around what's wrong."

The girls agreed silently, but not always was time-travel allowing them to appear right at the center

of the problem. And Pluto had said that she didn't really know anything - they would have to search.

"Standing around and just talking won't bring us anything - let's go." Serenity said and walked ahead,

her guardians a few steps behind her.

Ceres patted Serenity's shoulder and stopped her, putting a finger to her lips to make everyone listen.

A growl was heard and it sounded again, much closer this time, big thundering steps in a steady run

approached in their general direction and, finally, they saw something that strongly resembled

a fierce dragon rushing towards them.

Each girl grabbed her weapons and nodded at each other before they ran towards the monster.

A few steps forwards, though, Serenity bumped into something and fell to the ground, something else

hitting the ground in front of her. When she looked ahead, she saw a small curled up figure of a person

lying there, trembling with fear.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her guardians - seeing that their leader was alright - continued their approach.

The figure didn't answer, only trembling more and tightened it's curled up position.

"_Flaming Whip!_" Vesta's whip started to burn and, with a crack of her weapon, the burning flames flew

towards the dragon, hitting it in the eyes.

Growling loudly in pain, the dragon shook it's enourmous head and ran around blindly and towards

Serenity and the little figure. Just before it could crush them underneath it's claws, she tightened

her grip on her wand and aimed it at the dragon.

"_Pink Sugar Heart Attack!_"

The attack hit the dragon in it's stomach and it exploded loudly, a thin cloud of sand and dirt flew

over them as they watched the last remaining bits of the dragon disintigrating into nothingness before it hit the ground.

For a minute, they were all quiet and heaved a sigh of relief, knowing the danger was now gone.

Serenity looked at the little figure and carefully put a hand on her back.

"Are you alright?" she asked again, only able to whisper as she was trying to not scare it.

The figure started when it got touched and lifted it's head, staring wide-eyed at it's opposite.

Her head swivelled to all sides, seeing the other four girls but nothing else except their forest-like surroundings.

".. gone?" it asked finally, her voice cracked like it had failed her before.

Serenity nodded softly and stared in surprise, when tears sprung into the figure's eyes and she threw her arms

around the girl's torso, burying it's face into her chest and cried heavily, out of relief and the shock

and scare of the monster still inside her.

* * *

The crying had subsided after a while, nobody tried to calm her with useless words like "It's alright now"

or "There's no need to cry" as they could understand that, despite no danger threatening them anymore,

being suddenly chased by a monster was just plain scary. And a good cry afterwards always helped.

Once the figure stopped crying, it let go of Serenity and sat up, wiping the last residue of tears out

of her eyes.

It was a young girl, maybe about four or five years old - no older than six. She had candyfloss colored

hair, which was tied into two pigtails with two darkblue balls on each side to hold them up and her

curls flew from one side to the other.

What really intruiged Serenity about her, was the color of her eyes - they were, at first glance,

a deep amber yet when she moved her head, they glistened in a golden color.

It was amazing the way they gleamed, she had never seen such a striking eyecolor before ..

Mentally, Serenity sighed. Actually, she had.

But the owner of those beautiful eyes hadn't seen her for such a long time ..

The little one was wearing a black dress with thick straps fastened with buttons like an overall,

the bodice tight around the stomach and ended into a pleated skirt that reached her ankles.

Underneath was a cream blouse with the cuffs not closed and slipping over her hands halfways.

She patted some dirt off her skirt and then bowed slighty.

"I'm sorry about that." she said in a sweet voice, smiling embarrassed. "Thank you for rescuing me."

"It's alright." Serenity said and smiled back. "And I'm sorry for bumping into you."

The girl shook her head and bowed again, then looked in a curious fashion at Serenity and the other

four girls, taking in their strange uniforms. Tight, white bodices and the same type of collars and skirts,

but in different colors for every girl and thin ribbons trailing along their long legs ..

"Who are you?" she finally asked and gasped slightly when the four girls that were standing

struck a pose that seemed like it was a habit of them to take it.

"For Love and Justice, we help those in need - the Sailor Quartet!" they said in unison, finishing

their speech with a wink. The girl stared in utter surprise while Serenity giggled at her guardians.

"We're Sailor Soldiers and we help anyone who needs it, like they said. Those four are Sailor Pallas,

Sailor Ceres, Sailor Vesta and Sailor Juno." Serenity told her, pointing along with her words

at the bluehaired girl, then the one with the pink hair, the redhead and finally the green haired one.

She got up, but remained in a slightly slouched position to look into the girl's eyes.

"And I am Sailor Moon."

"Sailor Moon?" the girl asked amazed and got a nod as an answer. "I've heard about you!"

Her voice swung with something that resembled admiration and respect, her eyes glistened

even more. Then the eyes grew serious. "Do you really help someone in need? Anyone?"

Serenity nodded, smiling still.

Her opposite's eyes grew dull and her voice changed, no big emotion swinging in it,

except maybe a small amount of what seemed to be .. disappointment?

"_Anyone_?" she asked again.

Serenity kneeled down again to be on the same level. "Anyone - whatever it might be,

we help them. Even if it seems impossible .. or dangerous."

The little one nodded and kept her head hanging low. "Would you .. would you come with me

to Crystal Tokyo? I require help .."

* * *

They slowly walked down the slope the road took, approaching the still far away city of

Crystal Tokyo, on their guard for any more monsters or anything that might pose a threat.

The night wasn't as dark as it might've been somewhere else, but the eerieness did scare

all of them a little bit - most of all, it seemed, the girl who had grabbed Serenity's hand

and didn't let go.

Serenity watched the little girl, her head was held high yet her eyes were downcast

and she didn't look happy at all. Quite the opposite. Somehow, she felt like she needed to

make sure that the little one was happy.

"Say, you don't look very happy." she said, stating the obvious and felt rather foolish for doing so.

"Ah, just .." the girl mumbled and blushed slightly. "I sort of snuck out .."

"And you're worried your parents might get angry?" the older looked at her younger, wondering

if she should tell her how she knew her parents would be worried and maybe a little angry.

But that they would love her nonetheless, that their worry and anger came from deep love.

"I only have mama. And she's too busy with .. she has no time for me." the girl said,

her voice sounding even flater than before. "Sometimes, I'd rather go live with papa."

Serenity got confused by her words, having heard the words of only having her mother,

she assumed the girl's father was dead.

"Where .. I thought you said you only had your mama. Do you mean your papa isn't dead?"

The girl shook her head fiercely and looked up at the other, something about her face shining brightly.

"I never met papa, but mama told me about him - and I know he's alive!"

"Ah .. where does your papa live?"

"I don't know .. Mama told me more about him than where he is from. But she told me about

him being so dreamy, like he was a dream himself." the little girl put her free hand onto her chest

and a note of gentle love swung in her voice, not realizing how Serenity's ears almost hurt her

from listening intently. "Mama described him to me .. his frail figure. But she also said that

he wasn't fragile at all, that his bodybuild was muscular underneath his clothes. And his silvery hair,

that curled ever so slightly, the last few strands touching his shoulders a bit. But most of all,

she described the incredible sensation she got when she looked into his golden eyes,

the way they seemed to look through somebody and see the innermost part of their soul,

how they could seem intimidating - but how such great gentleness was visible in them

and the way they appeared to her like a golden ocean in which she could swim for all time

and never get tired, like she couldn't get enough of him-Mh?"

The girl stopped in her prolonged admiration speech about her father and in her steps

as Serenity had suddenly stopped herself. She looked stiff and rigid, staring down at her and

her eyes spoke of shock, hurt being the other prime emotion in them.

"Sailor Moon?"

Serenity's thoughts swirled like a tornado in her head - the description that the little girl had

given was just the way she would describe Helios .. The priest she had met in the 20th century,

the one who had to find the maiden to break the seal on the Golden Crystal as it had been the

only thing to save the Earth from the Dead Moon Circus' nightmare and to cure Mamoru and Helios,

who had contracted that horrible disease .. the shadow formed like a black rose in the chest as the symbol.

She focused her eyes back onto the girl, trying to surpress her thoughts, but ..

She had to face what she heard .. this girl was Helios' child.

"Sailor Moon?" the little one repeated, tugging her hand slightly and ripped Serenity out of her thoughts.

"A-ah .. your papa .. he sounds like a great guy." she stuttered, trying to sound breezy and cheerful,

trying to control the sadness that made it's way from her heart up to her eyes and wanted to make her cry.

The girl giggled and nodded in agreement.

* * *

Crystal Tokyo, made out of an immense formation of crystals growing out of the earth, was lying dormant

and pitch dark in front of them. The clear crystal walls showed glimpses of it's inside, the moat had a wide

bridge out of light wood over it, connecting it to the main street.

They quickly crossed the bridge, looking around and seeing empty streets wherever they turned their heads,

empty stands were perfectly vacated and only the marquee flapping in fake breezes. The quietness of

the place, their steps unusually loud, it frightened Serenity more than the dark night ouside.

No matter what time of day or night, the main street tended to have some noise about it. If it wasn't

merchants yelling out their products and offerings, it was passengers stopping for a chat with others

or just stray animals running along.

"It's really quiet .." she finally said, her voice quivering slightly with fear.

"Feels horrible .." one of her guardians agreed and Serenity nodded.

There was something in the atmosphere that made Crystal Tokyo seem like a ghost town. Like nobody

living had set foot into this place for a long time. But that thought seemed impossible.

For centuries, Crystal Tokyo had been the main city of the eastern hemisphere.

The six girls stopped in the middle of the road, like something made them do it.

The air felt heavy, like it would suffocate them if they didn't leave soon, the stillness made the hair

on their arms stand off and their ears, searching hard for any sort of sound except a breeze

that felt strained, felt like popping off.

The little girl moved first, heading towards the Crystal Palace, and Serenity wanted to stop her.

It just felt wrong somehow, the city. The quietness and no sign of life scared her, like it was

a trap. She saw something gleaming for a second at the top point of the tallest part of the

crystal formation - a little glint of something bright and pink, but the next moment it was gone

and she saw nothing more. Somehow it had appeared to her like a sign, a hint to come there,

like the famous Star that led the wise men ..

"Coming?" the little one asked, several steps ahead and stopped in front of the closed off wall

of the crystal formation that would lead them to the inside of the palace.

The guardians and Serenity caught up, gasping when the girl lifted her hand and held it

to the wall - her hand began to shine and the wall reacted by etching in the drawings of

a big portal, intricate designs following the frame, until it was drawn perfectly into the wall.

Then the door opened and she stepped inside, the others following her after a short minute.

"How .. how could you open the door?" Serenity asked in surprise. "It only opens when

someone of the royal family .."

The girl turned around and looked at them in a slight 'Well, D'uh!' fashion, then bowed curteously.

"I'm sorry for the late introduction. I am Ellis, crownprincess of Crystal Tokyo."

* * *

A bit of a short chapter again ..  
Sorry for the wait, I got into a drawing mood, then into a depressed mood ..  
Now I'm back and I hope to continue further with this story - although my head keeps  
focusing on the ending of it.


	3. The Epidemic

**Cat-Alin does not gain any profit by writing or publishing this story.  
All characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi and TOEI Animation.**

* * *

The main entrance hall of the Crystal Palace was a huge room, shaped like an oval with

decorative pillars to the sides of a big, curving staircase right ahead of them. Doors

on the sides led to the dining hall and the kitchen. Despite there being light sources shaped

like seashells on the walls and pillars, the palace was dark and gloomy, like a grey filter

was lying over everything - a thick layer of dust and muck.

The soldiers didn't notice their surroundings much, their gaze being glued to the girl who

had introduced herself and lifted her head from her bowed position.

Being the crownprincess of Crystal Tokyo ..

"So .." Serenity slowly said, feeling like her tongue got stuck on her gums. "your mama

is the reigning Queen?"

Ellis nodded slowly and watched the other girls looking at each other, clearly a lot of things

going on in their heads. Being crownprincess meant being the next queen, to ascend the throne

upon the previous queen's demise and this title was generally given to the first daughter

of the previous queen.

In their time, Serenity was the first-born daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity and she had been

titled the crownprincess shortly after her birth. However, due to her baby sister being born

and her duty as the 'next' Sailor Moon having higher priority, the Queen had confinded in them.

On the second princess' first birthday, she would make an official announcement,

declaring her younger daughter as the crownprincess - Serenity was to focus on her soldier

duties. Ellis being the crownprincess - and they believed it, as they had no reason to doubt her -

meant that either she was Neo-Queen Serenity's third daughter and declared crownprincess,

or she was ..

"Would you please follow me?" Ellis asked and went ahead, through the gap between two pillars

and down a short hallway, turned around the left corner and opened the door to a room.

The six of them entered and found a room filled with various objects, the rest of the room was dark

due to the light not being on. When the girl touched a flat panel on the wall, a lamp on the ceiling

lighted up, bathing the room in it's light.

The room was square - perhaps a bit more rectangular - and the lamp was a glowing bulb

with thin, silver sparkling wavey lines stretching out with tiny lightbulbs along them;

most of the objects they had noticed before the light was on were stuffed animals in various sizes.

The biggest one was a white horse with wings, it's mane and tail shining silveryblonde - it was lying

on it's side on the floor, surrounded by teddy bears in shades of brown, auburn and even pink and blue,

some stuffed cats that looked incredibly soft and - what confused them at first - an eiderdown

that was midnight blue with yellow stars and moons stitched on it lying next to them and looked like

it had been thrown off.

Somehow, Serenity felt for sure that Ellis used that corner as her bed with the horse replacing her

pillow and the floor, which was made up of a thick white carpet, being her matress. Perhaps she

dreamt of Helios, in the form of a pegasus - the cursed form he held for the 1000 years he was

imprisoned, his body and spirit fused with that of his most noble steed.

Ellis' real bed was standing in a corner, it was queen-sized and even from afar she could tell that

it was incredibly soft, the ivory sheets looked cold and unused, though. There was a low,

round table in the middle standing on a rug that had a cloud design on it, and a drawing pad

with some coloring pencils were scattered on the table, several loose papers were lying around

and, when Serenity's eyes peeked as she walked in a bit further, she saw sketches of a man

with white hair - seemed like Ellis had tried to draw her ideal image of her father.

Despite all the warm and nice things filling the room, there was something very depressing

about it, making it feel like an unloved existence was clinging to it and told of a lot of nights

being spent alone in it.

The girls sat where there was room, most of them chose the edge of the bed, but Serenity

decided to sit onto the floor, leaning her back against a small chair behind her.

Ellis was the only one standing and looked at all the girls, then took a deep breath. "Well, like I said

in the forest - I need your help."

Like an impulse to give her a fond memory and like it was the right thing to do, Serenity suddenly

picked Ellis up and set her onto her lap. The girl squirmed a bit and looked over her shoulder.

"I can tell you have something longer to tell us - being comfortable will make it a lot easier." the older

one said and smiled, wondering a bit why she had done it herself.

Perhaps it was the drawings of Helios that made her heart twinge when she thought of Ellis

and she felt that this little gesture might make her feel better, a bit protected, perhaps.

Ellis nodded and turned forwards again, her eyes now focusing on the guardians.

"Um, well, where to start .. well, Mama is the Queen and, um .." she stumbled over her own words

and tried to think of a way to explain everything.

"Could you tell me something first?" Juno leaned back and looked intruiged. "Why haven't we seen

a single person since we entered the city? I know it's night, but, still .."

The little girl hung her head slightly. "It's because of the epidemic .."

Wondering what she meant, the girls grew quiet and paid full attention and saw the little princess

swing her feet a bit before she cleared her throat.

"Well, better start how everything began .." she muttered and lifted her head a bit. "It all started

about 10 years ago, I .. I think it was in the summer. Some of the local merchants fainted and

fell sick - everyone thought it was merely exhaustion. After all, the weather was hot and they

worked hard for their living. Despite bedrest, though, their condition didn't improve - it worsened,

they got high fever and complained about joint-pain and backache and then their entire body hurt.

And paralysis started to appear, beginning with the feet - even before it reached their waist,

they died."

"At first, it was just very few isolated cases - the merchants often met up after work or

their stands were close together. But then, more and more of the commoners fell ill with

the same symptoms. The panic .." she stopped and clutched her hands into her skirt,

hanging her head low. Serenity put her hand over Ellis' and remained quiet, until she felt

like she was ready to talk again. "The panic started when the first of the staff from the palace

got sick - the scullery maids and valets. Everybody tried to isolate them and hope that

everything would turn out better .."

"And it didn't." Ceres said bluntly and saw Ellis nod. "What about the royal family?"

"They were told to remain in a back part of the palace - with a few hand-selected helps

that were made sure to be healthy - to assure that the lineage wouldn't die out.

But .. I don't know how, and it's still a mystery, somehow the Queen got sick. Mama,

who was pregnant with me, was the first to be taken out and put into a different room

with one maid - isolated, but safe. Time passed .. Mama gave birth to me and they waited.

Waited until somebody knocked. One of the kitchen staff found us and informed us

that the King and Queen were dead."

The four guardians gasped loudly at the news, even Serenity was as shocked as they were,

but she tried to hide it although her body flinched horribly - in this time .. her parents were dead.

That sobering thought made her feel sick, but she tried to endure.

"Mama ascended the throne then and has tried her best to stop this epidemic roaming

through the kingdom."

"Has she managed anything?" Vesta asked, tears forming in her eyes already.

Ellis slowly shook her head.

"No. Shortly after being named Queen, she sought together the rest of the healthy ones

and brought them inside the palace. That was about five years ago - and since then, they've all

been in the main hall, a few floors above us, being protected by Mama's crystal."

Serenity tried to focus her thoughts on the epidemic and what might've caused it,

not on the knowledge of how her parents were dead, how the grand Crystal Tokyo had

fallen in such a horrible state in a short time - or even how she was holding Helios' child

on her lap and she knew .. she started slightly when she noticed how Ellis had grabbed her hand

tightly and how much she was shaking.

Carefully, Serenity lifted her free hand and held it over Ellis' eyes, knowing that they were probably

filled with tears. The little girl turned suddenly towards her elder and looked at her with pleading

eyes, "Please, make everything better! Make Mama have some time for me .. make, make it go away .."

* * *

"You said the Queen is protecting everyone with her crystal .." Vesta asked as she leaned her

head onto the palm of her hand. "What do you mean by that?"

"Mama has a special crystal - it holds a huge amount of power. She told me." the little princess

told her and smiled at the time where her mother had told her of the crystal. "And she told me

that it can protect people and even let her heal them! .. in the main hall, where they are,

she prays with the crystal's power and it shines so brightly - it illuminates the room and

keeps that sickness away. But because the infection rate is so high, nobody is allowed to leave

the palace anymore. Most of them don't want to leave - they're too scared of getting

infected. But .."

"You wanted to go outside and see more of the world." Serenity stated simply and Ellis nodded,

watching the older girl look around the room and seeing the pale blue bookcase. It held a lot of books,

it wasn't very high - but it reached from the doorframe along the entire wall.

Something caught her eye and she carefully pulled out a book that seemed different from the others.

It was bound in white leather and the cover depicted a white horse surrounded by trees in various

shades of green and a fullmoon peeked out from the leaves - what intruiged her the most,

was that the book was layed out to be read the western way around.

She noticed that the edged seemed rather dull and bent a bit, like it had been in use for a really

long time - and yet she noticed a plastic wrap around the book, to protect it from damage.

It wasn't a really good job, there were places where the wrap had been cut too short and

pieces where unprotected or the wrap was doubled or even tripled over because it was too big.

"Horrible job, right?"

Serenity looked down and saw Ellis sitting next to her, grinning a bit wistfully.

"Well .. it's not the best .." the soldier said, trying to be nice. "It could do with improvement, though .."

Ellis nodded, agreeing with her, and then giggled embarrassed. "I never wrapped a book before,

so I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted to make sure that the book wouldn't get damaged too quickly."

"Want me to wrap it for you?"

The little princess looked up in surprise and nodded vigorously. "Please .. if, if it's not too much trouble."

Serenity smiled and stood up, walked over to the table while Ellis rushed towards the door, saying she'd

get the material. The soldier saw the title of the book then, it was written in black and was almost

hidden by the cover picture - but she couldn't read it. It looked like the western alphabet,

yet she saw a distinct difference.

Thinking that she could ask Ellis what it meant, Serenity lay the book on the rug and started to make

room on the table, stacking the loose papers nicely.

The various portraits of Ellis' vision of her father varied heavily - one showed a thin faced man,

the nose and mouth were missing and big round eyes stared back at her blankly and big waves sprouted

from his head and over to the edges of the paper. A different one gave him a bodybuilder's appearance

and tiny curls barely reached his ears, which seemed much too big for his head.

She giggled at some of them and found one that made her stop - it was probably a pretty fresh one,

the waves didn't spread out as much as before, but fell in small slopes down to the neck and

the eyes were slanted downwards and, although the mouth and nose were still missing, it had

a certain charm about it that spoke of love and of longing. Serenity thought that it came the closest

to a portrait of Helios - among the ones she had seen - and even the hint of the shoulders seemed correct.

"Ahh!" Ellis gasped slightly - startling everyone, even the four soldiers who had remained quietly on the bed -

as she returned with a long roll of plastic wrap, a pair of scissors and tape. "Th-those are .. um ..!"

"I'm sorry." Serenity quickly apologized, feeling like she had done wrong. "Just making room."

Ellis blushed a bit and put the stuff onto the cleared table. "It's okay. That's just .. Mama doesn't

have a picture of Papa and her description is all I had .."

It was understandable to the soldier that the little one wanted to know her father - to know where one

came from and how it came to be, especially if - and Serenity had thought so for a while - this little child

didn't seem to have a very happy time as of yet. Being stuck in the castle and alone, with her mother

so busy .. it rather reminded her of her own memories - before Neo-Queen Serenity had been

encased in the Silver Crystal and, once freed, had explained to her child that she loved her no matter what

or how busy she was. Duties got in the way, at times ..

"Say, Ellis-chan, what's with the title?" Serenity asked, banishing those old memories, slowly preparing

to peel the old plastic wrap off the book.

"Ah, well, the book is originally written in greek." the girl explained, watching the older one curiously. "Go ahead,

open the cover!"

Doing so, the child pointed to something on the top of the white page. In blue ink, something looked like it

had been written slowly to make it easily legible, in hiragana so that every age group could read it.

_I hope you will enjoy this book._

_Since you can't read ancient greek,_

_I translated it so you can read it easily._

_Or you could ask your mother to read it to you._

_Thank you for being born, Ellis!_

_Helios-Papa_

_P.S: it's called The Pegasus Of The Forest_

Her heartbeat quickened and ached horribly as she read those lines.

She was holding something that Helios had held himself, had taken the time to translate it

and a flush rose in her cheeks.

Ellis, who also had a happy blush on her cheeks, smiled sweetly. "It's a present from papa to me!

He sent it shortly after I was born, it's my favorite book! I read it every day - sometimes several times in a row."

Serenity looked down at her and patted her head, a sad and yet happy smile stretching her lips lightly.

"You love your father a lot, don't you?" she asked and got a big nod in response. "I'll make extra sure to

wrap it nicely so it won't get dirty, alright?"

Slowly, inch by inch, the old wrap got peeled off to make sure it wouldn't rip the delicate item

and got placed onto the new wrap, cut about two inches bigger than the book itself, carefully cutting the

sides a bit to wrap under the edges. All the while, Serenity couldn't help but feel dejected and saddened

for the little princess of this time's Crystal Tokyo.

True, before she matured and awakened her powers as a soldier, she had been powerless and continously

mocked by other kids. How she looked nothing like the queen - nobody knew that she had inherited

her looks from her grandmother- or how, if the Queen really was her mother, why she never fussed about her

and kissed her and held her.

Even thinking back made her feel like it was still present - although she had gained confidence while she

had trained in the 20th century, gotten stronger and her self-esteem had improved.

But when she thought of how Ellis lived - alone, forced to stay inside the castle .. and not really knowing

her father, it looked like it tore her up. But she seemed to try to hold it up all the time, to not show

how she felt inside. Considering how Ellis seemed to idolize her mysterious father - he was probably the

only ray of light in her dark existence.

"Here you go." she finally said, closing the book and handing it to Ellis. "Wrapped for eternity."

The girl gasp when she took the beautifully wrapped book, the cover glistening under the light's reflection,

and the edges completely protected now. "Thank you!"

* * *

"You want to _what_?" Juno asked surprised and annoyed, sighing immediately.

The five soldiers were standing in the hall outside Ellis' room, huddled into a corner and in deep discussion.

"Princess, I know how .. certain circumstances might seem bad for this princess." Ceres said in

her usual mature voice. "But I don't think you should mix up her wish with yours."

"I .. I am not doing that!" Serenity retorted half-heartedly. "But .. I .. I think it would make her happy,

especially if she is so miserable in this place."

"Well .."

"Besides, I think we're supposed to help her, anyway." Serenity said quickly, making up an excuse

but also really believing this. "I mean, we need to change this future so this epidemic won't appear

in our time .. she didn't say how soon it would appear, but .."

"Pallas thinks the princess is right!" the youngest said.

"Pallas, hang on. Princess, I think you are mixing things up!" Juno grabbed the princess' shoulders

and shook her slightly. "We all know you are lonely about not seeing Helios and Ellis-chan reminds you

of your own childhood. But do you really think dragging her all the way to Elysion, across so many

fields and risk infections is a good idea, just because _you_ want to see Helios again?"

With a furrowed brow, the leader slapped Juno's hands off and tried to hide how much those words

had hurt her. "My feelings for Helios and our situation have nothing to do with this. Ellis wants

to meet her father, I am taking her to him."

"But .. you heard how high the risk is to get infected with that illness!"

"It's true. What good will our help be with any of us fall ill and end up dead from it?" Vesta agreed

with her sister. "Especially since we don't really belong in this time, anyway. If you die here,

how could we ever return and look into the King and Queen's faces again?"

"If we don't do anything we won't have them much longer!"

And with that the girl pushed passed her companions and entered into the little princess' room,

who was still sitting at the table and reading the freshly wrapped book. Serenity noticed the

greek symbols on the pages and the same legible writing underneath - the translation.

"You guys were getting loud-"

"Ellis-chan," Serenity said and sat down in front of her. "do you want to meet your father?"

How the opposite's mouth widened in surprise and nodded strongly! "Of course! But .."

She looked uncertain at the other. "Do you know where he is?"

The soldier nodded. "I'm pretty sure. I want to take you to him, to meet him and stay with him,

at least until we've fixed this epidemic."

The little one's eyes startle to sparkle with tears of joy and excitement,

but got dampened right away. "But .. Mama .."

"I understand if you don't want to leave her alone .." Serenity said slowly. "But I'm sure she

wouldn't want you to spend all your time alone anymore. She probably knows how much you

want to see your father .. and where he is .. there is no illness. You would be perfectly safe there."

Ellis hesitated for a while, thinking of what she was going to do.

She was going to leave the place she had known as home, to go to a place she didn't know

and to someone who might be her father, but might not be what she imagined. All she knew

she had heard from her mother or made up herself .. then again, he _had_ sent her that book

and he had sounded happy in the message he had written in it. He had also taken the time for her

to make that translation so she could read it.

When she got up, Serenity watched her as the little girl took a paper and a pen and started

writing something in a hurried fashion, but still quite controlled herself when she folded it.

"It's not the best explanation, but .. I'm going to make sure she will get this letter. Hang on!"

And Ellis dashed out her room and towards the entrance hall again, disappeared completely up

the stairs and Serenity joined her companions.

They didn't look very happy at the situation, but knew that when their leader had made up her

mind, it was hard to make her change it. So they remained quiet until Ellis ran past them and,

after a minute or two, reappeared with a small backpack on her back

and a huge, excited smile on her lips. "Let's go!"

* * *

Chapters might continue to be this length, imagine them like episodes.  
This chapter focused on some relationship development and explained a bit more  
about Ellis' life. It might seem like I'm piling up things to make her seem like  
a poor little girl, but .. that's the way things are going for her.  
Next chapter .. A tearful reunion for the lovers or the family?


End file.
